From Amy Thomas, author of Paris, My Sweet. A love affair with Paris, New York, sweets and, now, a little girl named Parker.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

French word of the day: zapper

Def: to channel-hop

I liked this word immediately; it somehow conjures the fun of channel surfing… Zap! Zap! Zap!

But what makes it even better is that it’s so much more innocent than I ever thought.

I live around the corner from rue Saint-Denis: sex store central. In all the grimy store windows, they happily announce “Zapping 2 euros”. Zapping?! Qu’est-ce c’est? All I know is that it sounds pretty kinky and I imagined it was, kinky, and left it at that. Now I realize it’s just harmless channel-surfing my friends! Two euros for a whole world of channels to explore!